Rid yourself of Idols. Statues of Mary, Jesus etc are graven images prohibited in the 10 commandments. Right?

Question

Turn to God not images made of wood and stone. Read Exodus 20:4.

Answer 1

Do you have pictures of your loved ones?

Statues and pictures of people we love are not idols.

Statues and paintings of Jesus and the saints are just like pictures of the people we love and respect.

The King James Version of the Bible states in Exodus 20:4: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth"

Why were the Jews commanded not to make graven images? Graven images were the standard method of pagan worship. They were representations of false gods.

This is a very clear command.

However God commanded the Jews in Exodus 25:18 and 1 Chronicles 28:18–19, "And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them"

And in 1 Kings chapter 7 Solomon made bulls and other images out of precious metals.

It seems obvious that the Jews did not worship the cherubims and Solomon did not worship the bulls he had made. These images did not violate the command of God. Therefore, an image not made for worship is acceptable.

In Numbers 21:8-9, "And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and if anyone who has been bitten looks at it, he will recover." Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he recovered."

And in John 3:14-15, Jesus says in correlation, "And just as Moses lifted up the [image of a] serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

How can a statue of our Lord Jesus Christ dead on the cross be considered an idol to a false god? A crucifix is the message of the Gospel without words held up for all to see, a visual reminder of the sacrifice of Jesus, no different from a painting, a play, or a movie.

Catholics do not worship statues but the almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

The Commandment regarding idols is of two parts. The first part says "you shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything." The second part says "You shall not bow down to them or worship them."

The original definition of idol in Hebrew was simply "a statue." This explains why the Jews went absolutely nuts when the Roman Emperor Caligula put a statue of himself in the center of the Temple in Jerusalem.

However, the early Christians wanted to convert the Romans and it would not work if they called the Romans "idol worshipers" and insisted Roman statues be destroyed. So the Christians used a time proven technique of dealing with the problem. They simply changed the definition of idol to mean, "a graven image" or "a false god."

With that little change in definition, a statue of Mary, Jesus or the Emperor were not considered idols therefore OK to have around. It also made it OK to bow down to the statues since they were no longer idols.

The Eastern Greek/Russian Orthodox Christians stuck with the original definition. No idols, but they did make a lot of icons, which are OK.

When the Protestant movement came along, they considered the logic of the RCC a sophistry and never got into making or using idols in their churches.

The Muslims also have an issue with idols, which led to the destruction of 400 year old Buddha statues in Afghanistan.

So there you have it. I doubt anyone will get the RCC to change its views, but if it ever did decide to join the other Christian churches on this issue, I hope they donate to museums. Some of those idols were made by the Masters.

Answer 3

You are in violation of this commandment right now. The commandment prohibits images and likenesses of anything in heaven or on earth. Your computer has an image of me looking out at you right now. If you say that the commandment only applies to statues, you are wrong - graven images are statues, but likenesses are any images that are meant to resemble something that actually exists. If you say that we can make these images but we cannot worship them, then what's the problem? No Christians in their right mind can confuse a painting or a statue with Almighty God. If you say that we can have images, just not religious images, then you are still contradicting the commandment (which prohibits images of any thing). And if you say that this commandment prohibits religious images, then you are again contradicting the Law of God which commanded graven images atop the Ark of the Covenant, as well as on the walls and veil of the Tabernacle. If you say that we can have religious images as long as we don't bow before them, then you are denying the inspiration of the Psalms, which command us to bow before the foot stool of God, which is identified as the Ark of the Covenant with its two graven images.

The only conclusion that preserves the integrity of Scripture is that the commandment prohibits the images of malevolent spirits, which were used by the pagans to placate devils.

Answer 4

The commandments do not forbid statuary. They forbid idolatry. A statue isn't an idol unless you worship it. Unless you turn to it instead of to God, just as Exodus 20:4 clearly states.

It's sad how badly one can distort the Word of God, once one is separated from the biblical pillar and foundation of truth, Christ's holy Church.
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Answer 5

The 10 commandments weren't written by god. moses wrote them and said god did. It suited his needs at the time. This of course brings into doubt the reliability of exodus and his other 4 books.

If moses lied about writing the commandments, he probably lied in the other books too. He would apparently say anything to get what he wanted

Answer 6

Why follow the ten commandments? They also are used for idolatry. There are two commandments given in the new testament :

Thou shalt love the lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind and strength.

Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

On these two hang all the other commandments because the love of God is greater and because anyone obeying these two will not disobey the others, because of love.

Answer 7

An Idol is something you worship. A statue of a person is fine with God and does not break any of His Laws. Its only when you bow down to these statues and proclaim them God that you break the Law.><>

Answer 8

Read Exodus 25 and 26. God tells the Israelites to fashion all sorts of images, to be used as aids in worship.

Making images is not forbidden in the Bible -- in fact, Exodus 25 and 26 tells people to do it.

Worshipping the images is forbidden, though. There's a difference.
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Answer 9

No, you are actually wrong.

The catholic church actually took care of that little detail a while ago and officially banned that commandment for the sake of merchandising royalties.

The catholic church is NOT, I repeat, is NOT contradictory.

Everything is covered, don't worry. They even managed to still have 10 commandments by splitting the last one in two. You see... a wife (while still a property subject to be coveted) is not a house nor an ***.

No, no no....

Answer 10

Jesus is the flesh image of a heavenly thing, so according to the old first commandment, we are forbidden to worship him.

Get back to me when you work this one out.